In recent years, the vehicle-mounted camera for image recognition is becoming predominantly of the multi-application type where a plurality of applications is simultaneously executed. While the conventional vehicle-mounted camera has been mostly based on a system that utilizes a camera dedicated for image recognition, the number of systems is increasing in which the same camera is used for presenting a picture to the user and for image recognition. One example is Patent Literature 1.
In a multi-application vehicle-mounted camera that executes a plurality of applications simultaneously, a camera mounted outside the vehicle cabin may be utilized for image recognition. Thus, there is a need for a technology for detecting contamination or rain drops and determining whether the current state of the camera is utilizable for image recognition.